Oceanic Hitchhikers – Assessing Pathogen Risks from Marine Microplastic
University of Exeter · Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science
Abstract
Microplastics are a major source of anthropogenic contamination in the oceans. This contamination is now widespread, recalcitrant, and likely to continue unabated into the future.Plastics represent an important environmental substrate for the colonisation of bacteria from the surrounding water column, with distinct communities, abundances, and population structures on the plastic surfaces.There is the potential for microplastics to act as a long-distance transport mechanism for human and animal pathogens, potentially spreading pathogenic bacteria into new areas.A variety of human pathogens have been found on microplastics in the open ocean, but we do not know their pathogenicity and virulence potential or…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 13.03
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 72
Authors
5Topics & keywords
- Biology
- Microplastics
- Human health
- Human pathogen
- Aquaculture
- Risk assessment
- Ecology
- Risk analysis (engineering)